


Runaway Spider

by DoggyTwoShoes



Category: Runaways (TV 2017), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22081210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoggyTwoShoes/pseuds/DoggyTwoShoes
Summary: Life in Tatters following the reveal of his identity, Peter Parker has no choice but to flee New York, to run away. A chance stop at a food pantry run by the nationally recognized PRIDE charity leaves Peter uncovering a conspiracy wider than he had seen before. With no resources, he is forced to embrace his monicker of the Next Iron Man even as an accused murderer, and try to unweave the tangled web left by powerful people. But it leaves him asking the question, how can seven teenage runaways, even superpowered possibly stop some of the most powerful people in the country?
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru, Peter Parker & Runaways Team, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Runaway Spider

**Author's Note:**

> I fill in a lot of the gaps here connecting Runaways to the wider universe, but I think I did an okay job. This was born from Peter needing to hide after Far From Home as well as my sincere belief that someone would realize something strange about the PRIDE, as well as a desire to see Peter and the Runaways Crossover.

_”Spider Man’s Real Name...Is Peter Parker!”_

Seven words were all it took to change his life. 

Before that he had been on top of the world, he had stopped Mysterio, regained EDITH, saved his friends, confessed to the girl he liked that he liked her, found out she liked him back, gotten her as a girlfriend, finally, maybe, started to step up into a role as the new Iron Man for the world, no matter how much he didn’t deserve it. He had even avoided being scarred by a conversation about his Aunt’s and Happy’s relationship.

Then that damn video came out. It came out, exposed his identity to the world, and branded him a murderer. It didn’t matter that he had saved a lot of people, or that it was totally false that he was a murderer, everyone believed it with mob mentality, so much so that he had to leave his friends and family in New York, go on the run while Miss Potts-Stark tried to do something, while they tried to clear his name.

Seven words were all it took to destroy Peter Parker’s life.

He had gone from being on top of the world, saving people and having a nice, warm, clean apartment in New York, the city he had lived in his whole life, to go home too; to having the underside of a bush in some town in Ohio to hide under, out of web fluid again.

Peter considered his options, he couldn’t rob somewhere to get the chemicals he needed, that would prove the world right that he was a criminal. He had already pushed the rules enough by leaching power off of Car Chargers to power his suit and EDITH.

“EDITH, where’s the nearest communal science center?” Peter mutters, seemingly to himself as the glasses he wore underneath his hoodie searched the internet. 

“Searching Peter, the nearest center is 15 miles away. Would you like me to plan a path?” The AI responded helpfully, as Peter cursed under his breath and muttered a negative response. Why did he have to run out of web fluid in Ohio of all places? Why not somewhere closer to Chicago or another major city? He guessed he had to hitchhike.

He walked about a mile up the highway, identity hidden underneath his hood and EDITH glasses, his suit a tap away from the nano-technology he used to make it, as well as twenty five dollars of spare change hidden in his backpack and his backup, Iron Spider suit, also fresh out of web fluid. 

“Incoming call Peter from: Happy Hogan.” The AI informs him, as Peter sighs.

“Answer.” He says, bracing himself as the video of the bodyguard pops up on one side of the glasses.

“Hey Pete, how are ya hangin’ kid?” He asks with a kind tone as Peter sighs.

“Just great!” He says sarcastically, snapping a bit, “Both suits are out of web fluid, the nearest source is fifteen miles away, the whole country thinks I’m a murderer, and I’m hungry and nearly out of money!”

“Yeah, you seem to have run into a perfect storm of crap,” Happy says with a sigh, Peter rolling his eyes from that.

“I’m...I’m scared Happy, when can I...when can I come home?” He asks, sounding like the kid he was, having undergone a great amount of tragedy in a short period and now with the latest thing undergone.

“We’re hoping soon kid, Pepper’s doing all she can but...” Happy starts before being cut off.

“It’s not enough?” He asks, getting a reluctant nod and sigh from Happy.

“Ross wants you on the Raft, the NYPD want you in custody, Britain wants you exported there for trial, and Fury wants you to check in with him. There’s a lot going on.”

“Tell me about it,” Peter says, “Please keep me posted,” He begs, as Happy nods.

“Of course kid.” Happy then hangs up as Peter sighs and hears his stomach growl, time to use what money he had left to try and eat.

Peter managed to find a food truck serving two dollar tacos. He knew they probably wouldn’t be good, but he’d take it, he was hungry and desperate, with very little money.

“Three please,” He says timidly upon reaching the front of the line, pulling out seven dollars worth of singles from the makeshift wallet he had in his bag.

“Six Forty Seven,” Was the only response he got from the man in the truck as he handed up his money, getting two quarters and three pennies as change. He then moved to the side as the cook began preparing the meal. Even smelling how one would expect two dollar road side tacos to smell, Peter’s mouth watered, a sign of how little food he had had with his advanced metabolism, he was starving.

“Here.” The cook handed Peter his tacos and a napkin, the young teen expressing his thanks as he took the tray, before suddenly backing up as the cook looked closer at his face and squinted. “Hey, don’t I know you?”

Peter then turn and ran, clutching the tacos close to his chest until her got at least a half mile away, stopping to breathe and take a bite. It tasted like he expected, which wasn’t very good, but it was cheap enough and it was warmish food, which was enough for him.

“What am I going to do?” Peter mutters mournfully to himself after he finished the food all too briefly, he was down to under nineteen dollars, he couldn’t go back to the cheapest place he had found, and he had no way to make more web fluid. He was screwed. He then had to stifle a yawn, looking around and knowing it was late, but not how late.

“EDITH, what time is it?” Peter questions in a meek voice, waiting for the AI’s response.

“It is 11:53 PM Peter,” The glasses respond to him, “And I detect an elevated heart rate and spiking blood pressure, would you like me to call an ambulance?”

“No No, I’m good,” Peter says, taking a few breaths as he takes off the glasses and slips them into his backpack, right next to his Iron Spider suit. He then went off the side of a road and slid down onto a ditch, finding some underbrush to take some minor shelter under. He then closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

He had a very restless night, dreams of Mysterio and Mr. Stark haunted him, while the harsh terrain plagued his enhanced senses, as well as sounds of nearby cars caused him to wake up abruptly multiple times. All in all, he got about three and a half hours of sleep.

The next morning was more hiking on foot, putting on his EDITH glasses immediately upon waking up, checking his meager water and money supplies, and making sure he had both suits before setting off.

“EDITH, I need food!” Peter whines, his stomach growling all morning, he couldn’t waste much money on meals at this point, every day he spent on the run he spent less and less until he eventually ran out.

“Peter, there is a food pantry half a mile east of here,” EDITH responds after a few seconds of searching, “Would you like me to set a course?”

“Yes!” Peter exclaims, happily, finally things were starting to look up.

“Warning Peter, this place is run by the charity organization PRIDE,” The glasses warn after a few more seconds of running, “Tony had some files on them, would you like to access them?”

“Maybe later,” Peter says, they were just a charity organization, how bad could they be? He saw the big food pantry, with the sign proclaiming quite loudly that it was run by PRIDE. Peter heard his stomach grumble and felt a slight tingling, but that was probably just light-headedness. He went in, slipping off his EDITH glasses for a cheap pair of sunglasses to try and disguise his identity.

“Can I help you...oh my god!” The worker at the front desk starts to ask before seeing the state of Peter’s clothes and his relative youth, as well as how thin he looked, “Right this way sir, you clearly need food. Do you have any family we can contact?”

“They...they’re all dead,” Peter mumbles, sounding sad, knowing he couldn’t give away any connections.

“Poor kid, you must really need a place to stay? How about you go eat something and I’ll go work out something for you?” The kind woman who worked at the desk asks, Peter feeling the light tingle again but still too hungry to focus on anything but his hunger.

“That’d be wonderful, thank you,” Peter responds, led into a room with a lone table and lots of food. 

“I’ll go make some calls and see if we can’t find somewhere for you, maybe the Church if we could get you to LA,” The woman says to herself, walking out of the room as Peter again doesn’t notice the prickling sense, to entranced by the free food he was offered and his lingering hunger.

Peter dug in as soon as the woman left, feeling a stab of guilt at the homeless this could have gone too, but he needed to eat to survive, and this place seemed to have an excess from the looks he had gotten. The PRIDE seemed like a great charity, after this was over, if it was, he’d make sure to donate something.

After he finished, finally feeling full for the first time in weeks, he sat back and waited for the nice woman to come back, seeing if she could maybe actually help him.

“You’re in luck,” The woman says as she enters the room, grinning, “I contacted one of our bosses in LA, they’ve agreed to pay for your bus fare there to join a shelter at the Church of Gibborim.” 

The lady handed Peter a bus ticket as he felt the prickling again and felt dread in his gut. Peter Tingle, what was it about?

“You’ll love it, they take in plenty of homeless refugee teens.” As the woman continued, Peter felt his tingle continue to go off, this church must be more than met the eye.

“Yeah...yeah thanks...um...where’s your bathroom?” Peter questions with a squeak to his voice, subtly putting some of the Granola Bars in his backpack for later, along with a few other snacks he had grabbed.

“Down the hall,” The woman says, Peter nodding in thanks before sprinting as soon as he left the room, leaving the food pantry immediately and going down a back alley, slipping on his EDITH glasses and nano-tech suit, booting them up immediately.

“EDITH, give me everything Mr. Stark had on PRIDE!” Peter shouts, knowing he was giving his position away but he was freaked out.

“Certainly Peter, Tony collected data that showed that while PRIDE was a charitable organization, things may not be as clear as they seemed. The Church of Gibborim, run by a member of PRIDE, takes in homeless teens or anyone wishing to convert, but, in past years, one teen has gone missing at the same time, usually with no familial connections or anyone to search for them,” The AI explains as Peter breathes in.

“Okay, okay, holy crap! EDITH, what is the Church of Gibborim?”

“The Church of Gibborim is a religion that believes in following the light. Founded by David Ellerh, he wrote about how he believed in the light coming to the world, and the Messiah of the Light bringing about peace. It is all inclusive, allowing anyone who wishes to convert. Based in Las Angeles, it is currently run by Leslie Dean, Frank Dean, and the recently missing Karolina Dean.”

Frank Dean, wasn’t that the weird actor heart-throb guy half the girls in his class used to have a crush on? That didn’t matter, this was getting more and more freaky.

“Tell me about Karolina, could she have been one of the ones _possibly_ killed?” Peter asks in horror, this was terrifying, it looked like he had inadvertently uncovered a crazy conspiracy, someone had to call SHIELD.

“Unlikely, since she has been spotted since her disappearance, usually in the company of other children of the members of PRIDE, Nico Minoru, daughter of Robert and Tina Minoru, executives at Wizard Tech,” Peter knew what that was, one of the only companies comparable to Stark Industries, “Chase Stein, son of Victor and Janet Stein,” Knew them too, he had read some of their groundbreaking papers on stuff like time travel and Quantum Physics, kind of Science Icons for him behind the likes of Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner, “Alex Wilder, son of Geoffrey and Katherine Wilder,” She was one of the most well known lawyers in the country, how could all these upstanding members of society be in on this huge conspiracy, “Gertrude Yorkes, daughter of Stacy and Dale Yorkes, and Molly Hernandez, adopted daughter of Dale and Stacy.” Alright, so Peter didn’t know any of them, but he remembered the kids, they were wanted for kidnapping and murder up until a few days ago, just like him.

“So is there anything else on PRIDE or anything related to them?” Peter asks hesitantly, this was a lot to take in for him, well known, respected people had been possibly part of some big conspiracy.

“Possibly, a few weeks ago, two of the kids filed a police report, alleging all the founders of PRIDE of murdering two kids, Destiny Gonzales, one of the members of the Church of Gibborim to go missing, and Amy Minoru, Nico’s sister and Tina and Robert’s daughter. The police report was dropped by the LAPD chief of police, and the kids disappeared soon after, accused of the same crimes,” EDITH explains, Peter breathing heavily now, what did he do, what did he do?

“EDITH, call Happy.” Peter breathes out, someone else had to know about this.

“Kid? What’s going on, why do you look so pale?” He questions concerned, as Peter takes a few breaths.

“I think I uncovered a massive conspiracy, or at least Mr. Stark did.” He says, clearly freaked out.

“What happened kid?” Happy asks, as Peter starts to explain before being cut off.

“Hey Kid, are you down here? Our security cameras caught you going this way.” Crap, it was the woman from the PRIDE place, the one who wanted to send him to the murder church.

“Kid, who is that?” Happy asks, before being shushed by Peter as he climbs up a wall and hides on a building, pressing himself low to the top of it as he sees the woman using a flashlight.

“EDITH, stun drone.” Peter murmurs, watching as a drone lowers down behind the woman and shoots her with a tranquilizing dart, knocking her out. 

“Pete, what was that?” Happy asks, as Peter takes a few breaths.

“Sit down, there’s a lot going on...”

—

“So you’re telling me this charity organization is a murder front?” Happy says as Peter nods.

“Check Mr. Stark’s files, it’s all there,” He says, breathless as Happy nods.

“What should I do if it is?” He asks, as Peter sighs, what to do, what to do?

“Call Fury, or the Avengers, just someone has to do something about this.” Happy takes a breath.

“Kid, Fury’s been trying for years, ever since Tony brought it to his attention. These guys are pros, Katherine Wilder’s a law shark, Wizard has Las Angeles covered in surveillance tech, any investigation into the Church has come up spotless, there’s never been enough evidence for anything.”

“Then what should I do?” Peter asks, trying to keep calm. What would Mr. Stark do? What would Mr. Stark do?

“Nothing kid, you’re a wanted fugitive, keep your head low and out of the spotlight. SHIELD’s lost agents on this case before,” Happy warns, before sighing, “Please Peter, just try and forget about this, it’s not worth it.” With that he hangs up the call, leaving Peter to take a few breaths.

“No, I can’t, I just can’t. Not when more kids could die,” Peter mumbles to himself, looking down at the bus ticket, 3:30 departure and it was 1:30 now. “I wonder how LA is this time of year?”

He hoped he could make Tony proud, while knowing deep down, this would be the course of action he would take too.


End file.
